It's been a while...

Wow, um, yeah, I totally skipped January. My bad. The beginning of the new year has been kind of crazy. I have all these goals for this year and things I want to improve. My resolutions list is pretty long, maybe too long. But it's doable.

Looking back over last year, I realized that I didn't do much. Nothing major happened and I just kind of floated along in life and didn't accomplish much of anything. But this year will be different. The key will be to not get overwhelmed.

I'll just briefly go over some of my goals:

1. Improve my spirituality. This includes going to church every week (I get lazy, a lot) and doing the daily stuff of reading my scriptures and saying prayer. I've struggled with that one for a while.
2. Make and keep to a budget. Another thing we've been meaning to do for a while, but just keep skipping over. But this year we're going to start knocking out some debt.
3. More discipline and structure for the kids. Jacob is totally passed the do whatever he wants all day stage and I need to get William ready for preschool.
4. Health stuff. Daniel and I are going to start working out regularly and I'm trying to do more good home cooked meals and less fast food.
5. And finally, my writing goals. Which include, finishing my current project (which might happen this weekend), start a new project and to update my blogs once a week.

It's a lot, but I've got a year, so I think I can do it. Just have to adjust the daily schedule a bit and stop being so lazy. I'm insanely lazy.

Anyway, as I said in #5, I'm going to keep up with my blogs this year *pause for laughter* yeah, yeah, I know. :) But I've got a lot of ideas and stuff.

So what do you have to look forward to? Well, I plan on updating this blog every Friday and the Writing blog on Wednesdays. Some topics we'll cover here are, Kricket Krafts, Kricket Kooks, more Mommy Konfessions, more book reviews and just whatever else I do in my life.

So please, stick around, I want to do more with this blog and I can't do that without your help and support. :)

Happy Valentines Day and have a great weekend!

P.S. I'm going to be doing some adjustments to the blog today, so it might look weird for a bit.

 

2013 Is Here!

2013 is here and that means it's time to set new goals and see how quickly I forget them. ;P

Last year was a good and stressful year. Jacob was born in April and we moved to our new place in August. We saw a lot of family this year. Both sides came in the spring or summer to see Jacob and then we visited everyone for the holidays.

I'm looking forward to this year in hopes that it will be a quieter and more peaceful kind of year. I know that the world and our country is in some turmoil right now, and it doesn't look like it will get that much better this year, but if I can keep my home and family in a happy place then all is well.

So how am I going to do that? Well I've got 6 things I want to accomplish this year. Some are just for me and some are for my family as a whole, and I really believe I can do it this year. And here they are:

Kricket's 2013 Resolutions

1. Begin getting out of debt. We're finally in a place this year were we can start saving and getting rid of these credit cards and student loans hanging over our heads. I'm really excited about this.
2. Create a more structured routine. It's hard to stick to a schedule with kids, especially with a baby, but everyone needs structure and I want to create more of that this year. No more living my days by the seat of my pants, it's too easy to be lazy that way.
3. Potty train Will. I hope to start that in the next couple weeks. I really want to get Will into preschool this fall and he'll need to be potty trained before that. He's ready, I'm almost ready, Let's Do This!
4. Go to the temple once a month. Daniel and I have been slacking on this. Having small children is a great excuse not to go as often as we should, but no more! We will schedule this and find someone to watch the kids and all will be well.
5. Finish first draft of Dragons in Space. I'll talk more about this in my writing blog tomorrow.
6. Read at least 25 books. I've never kept track of how many books I read but I really should. I figured 25 was a good number to start with. I'll probably read more. I've got three books right now I want to read, just having a hard time deciding which to read first.

And that's it folks! Finances, home life, kids, spirituality, writing, reading, I think I covered all the basics of my life. :)

So what are some of your goals for this new year? Tell me in the comments, this blog isn't just about me you know (okay, stop looking so shocked).

Happy New Year and have a good week!

Budget Cuts

So, in an attempt to cut down on our monthly expenses, Daniel and I have cut the texting out of our cell phone plan. I was seriously tired of paying $100 a month for 700 minutes and unlimited texting when we hardly use an "unlimited" amount of texts.

We thought about just doing like a 250 text plan, but then we figured that we really could live without texting all together. Because, believe it or not, there was a time when we all had cell phones, but there was no texting. And somehow, we survived. Heck, my parents have had cells for years and never once texted, and they manage just fine.

Besides, texting is way impersonal and sometimes unprofessional. It's like we've become afraid to actually talk to people. Does the sound of a human voice frighten us now because we're so used to seeing our conversations in text form? I've seen people have full-out conversations via text that would take half the time to say if they just used the phone to do what a phone is supposed to do, and call the person.

Not to mention the whole, texting-while-driving-thing. If we all would just stop texting in general, we would find a lot less accidents on the road. It's one thing to be talking on your phone while driving, but people that text while they drive deserve a special place in Hell for their stupidity. But that's just me, being heavily influenced by Oprah... :P

Anyway, so Daniel and I cut the texting and now we'll be saving ourselves somewhere between $30-40 a month. It's a beautiful thing.